The pursuit of more

Luck by chance? Ring a bell. It’s a movie by Zoya Akhtar with Konkana Sen Sharma, Farhan Akhtar in lead roles and released in 2009. I was 22 years old, had just started my first job and for some strange reason fell in love with this movie the first time I watched it. In the last almost decade and half, I must have watched it 25+ times. And weirdly it always makes me think about success, childhood friends, luck as a factor in life, money and a lot more. Maybe because I have been on my own path of chasing something.

The last time I watched the movie was a few weeks back and a dialogue/line has not left my mind since then — success or failure is a choice that we make. Ok, nothing too deep, seems like a line out of any growth handbook or a twitter thread. But if you think about it, we live this choice everyday.

Professionally, I chase more everyday. I think there is so much that I haven’t achieved as yet. Somedays I end up comparing my life with friends, or start imagining how life would be if i had say 10x the money.

But if I go back to the 22 year old who first watched this movie and ask him to draw a life for me — I think I am far ahead of what he would want in 12 years (I have factored all the new levels we unlock as we grow older). The house I live in, the car I drive, savings and investments, the cities and countries I have travelled to — I think if given an option I would have taken all of this in an instant when I was 22.

But strangely, none of it is enough now. I dream about a bigger house, a cooler car, more money. Remember Rajat Gupta, the Mckinsey Head who was jailed for insider trading. He was probably worth $100 million+ but talked about how he envied the billionaires in his circle.

We are humans and we will always want more. And I am the first to say that ambition is good, the drive keeps us going. But as I grow older, I realise that success or failure is a choice that I make.

Here’s another gem from the movie.